Core Facilities At The Texas Center For Superconductivity

TcSUH Core Facilities Overview

TcSUH occupies more than 60,000 square feet of space in 3 buildings on the University of Houston campus. Our facilities house over 25 million dollars in equipment dedicated to the fabrication and analysis of superconductor materials, processing and characterization of compound semiconductors, advanced oxide material systems, and advancement of thin film deposition techniques.

The equipment is a combination of commercial and custom built systems that allow the production of high temperature superconductors (HTS) and state-of-the-art thin film material structures and devices. Administration offices and a majority of the laboratory space is located in the University of Houston Science Center, with equipment and research project offices in Science and Research Building One and the Cullen College of Engineering. TcSUH administrative operations include lab management and technical personnel.

Large scale facility infrastructure is supported by University of Houston, and the Center's IT is integrated with the UH LAN with data and communication protected behind a robust campus firewall.

The following facilities are available through collaboration with the TcSUH Principal Investigators who head them. Students receive hands-on experience, learning a wide variety of skills as they work in multidisciplinary groups within our facilities.

Becoming a User

Training on the equipment one-on-one is provided by Facility personnel. Contact Professor Dezhi Wang, dwang29@central.uh.edu, to be connected with the appropriate lab personnel. Training proceeds independent usage of the facilities. Once the lab manager has decided that you are qualified user, access to each lab is 24/7. A user fee is charged to each of the facilities according to the complexity of the equipment.

TcSUHCORE Facilities Fee Schedule

Charges for UH researchers depend upon whether the machine is operated by
the researcher DIY(“Do-It-Yourself”) or whether TCSUH personnel perform that duty
(“Service”). Hourly charges billed to University of Houston accounts are below. Fees below are listed in US Dollars.

TEM

SEM

EMPA

XRD 5000

XRD Rigaku

DOIL

Carbon Coating

UH-Users

UH-Users | DIY Rate

$48/ per hour

$30 /per hr.

$30 /per hr.

$17 /per hr.

$171 /per hr.

$6 /per hr.

❌

UH Users | Service Rate

$103 /per hr.

$85 /per hr.

$85 /per hr.

$72 /per hr.

$721 /per hr.

$36 /per hr.

$10 /per use

NoN-UH Users | DIY Rate

$73 /per hr.

$46 /per hr.

$46 /per hr.

$26 /per hr.

$261 /per hr.

$9 /per hr.

❌

Non-UH ServiceRate

Non-UH Users | Service Rate

$157 /per hr.

$130 /per hr.

$130 /per hr.

$110 /per hr.

$1101 /per hr.

$55 /per hr.

$15 /per use

Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA)

Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC)

Dilatometry (DIL)

Simultaneous Thermal Analyzer (STA)

Surface Area Analysis

Sputter Coater

UH-Users

UH-Users | DIY Rate

❌

❌

❌

❌

❌

❌

UH Users | Service Rate

$35 /per sample

$25 /per sample

$35 /per sample

$60 /per sample

$40 /per sample

$10 /per use

NoN-UH Users | DIY Rate

❌

❌

❌

❌

❌

❌

Non-UH ServiceRate

Non-UH Users | Service Rate

$53 /per sample

$38 /per sample

$53 /per sample

$92 /per sample

$61 /per sample

$15 /per use

Rate Notations 1 The hourly rate noted is for shorter-term experiments (i.e., 12 hours or less). In the event of longer-term experiments (i.e., > 12 hours), the user will be charged for a maximum of 12 hours. Please note that this includes only continuous experiments rather than a cumulative use involving multiple experiments.

TcSUH is a large multidisciplinary university-based superconductivity and advanced materials research center, with over 200 faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate and undergraduate students, housed in the Houston Science Center and several other buildings on the University of Houston campus.